So I finally picked up a left handed recurve to try to balance out muscles and also just to try something new. I am very right handed so at first shooting left handed felt like something right out of Monty Python, one of the most uncoordinated things I have ever tried to do. But even with an anchor that was only somewhere near my face, I found that I instinctively knew where the arrow was going to go left and right, regardless of distance. This is kind of strange since I have never been able to instinctively "know" where the arrow is going to go left and right while shooting a bow right handed. The only way I can really gage side to side right handed is to lean over until the arrow is right under my eyes. Shooting left handed is still awkward, and my form breaks down on a third of the shots, but it's nice to shoot and only have to focus on up and down.

Sounds to me you're left eye dominant.

It seems obvious you are left eye dominant

"lean over until the arrow is right under my eyes"

As in, left eye.

As a gun range supervisor I've seen this countless times, especially with long guns. Probably it creates the bent over, butt sticking out form often seen used by "stinktive" shooters.

The dominant eye can and does switch sides. Distance and angle determine which eye is dominant. Many studies have proven and confirmed this fact. Here is one of them

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00426989010007 97

Yes, it does seem obvious, but when I do the test where you point and then close one eye then the other, neither eye seems dominant. The point is directly in the middle of the two eyes.

"Ocular dominance reverses as a function of horizontal gaze angle"

Very interesting. Folks with less flexible necks could be opening their stances to stabilize the dominance of their dominant eye. You don't have to be an advanced form tuner to be helped by this knowledge. Thanks for posting this.

there are a small percentage who’s eyes are similar or switch. Everyone wants that to be them so they can use whatever eye they like. Its really obvious from what you’re saying this isn’t you. You can force dominance to an eye short term. I think it’s what you’re doing during the tests. Your form has you naturally rotating head to get eye over arrow. I have methods that I use to check dominance without a student knowing. You need this. You’re thinking too much. You need not think, and you shouldn’t think to look at an object. Using your dominant eye you wont

3D: Just took a quick look at the article, interesting stuff. Will dive in to the full article later. Thanks for posting, I believe this will help me with some issues I've struggled with for years.

Tal, To check eye dominance, close your left eye and point your index finger at an object. Keep right eye open. Now close your right eye and see where your finger is. Jawge

I'm right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot right handed. Just squint my left eye a little and everything lines up.

The "Test" for eye dominance is not accurate btw.

It is not a minority that switches, in fact it is the majority. Here is a little more information on it:

Ocular dominance, sometimes called eye preference or eyedness, [1] is the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other.[2] It is somewhat analogous to the laterality of right- or left-handedness; however, the side of the dominant eye and the dominant hand do not always match.[3] This is because both hemispheres control both eyes, but each one takes charge of a different half of the field of vision, and therefore a different half of both retinas (See Optic Tract for more details). There is thus no direct analogy between "handedness" and "eyedness" as lateral phenomena.

Approximately two-thirds of the population are right-eye dominant and one-third left-eye dominant;[1][4][5][6] however, in a small portion of the population neither eye is dominant. [7] Dominance does appear to change depending upon direction of gaze[2][8] due to image size changes on the retinas.[9] There also appears to be a higher prevalence of left-eye dominance in those with Williams–Beuren syndrome,[10] and possibly in migraine sufferers as well.[11] Eye dominance has been categorized as "weak" or "strong";[12] highly profound cases are sometimes caused by amblyopia or strabismus.

In those with anisometropic myopia (i.e. different amounts of nearsightedness between the two eyes), the dominant eye has typically been found to be the one with more myopia.[13][14] As far as regards subjects with normal binocular vision, the widespread notion that the individual's better-sighted eye would tend to be the dominant eye has been challenged as lacking empirical basis.[15] Here is an interesting study they did with darts on eye dominance

http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/JNBH/article-full- text-pdf/1F219865202

Here is a great video about the test.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD3TKy-FCnA

I’ll def disagree it’s the majority that switches. Completely false. Listen you can take one article or test and try and prove something. Look at global warming. Dif scientists say dif things and have the “facts” to prove it. People opinions vary too. Take a survey about same sex marriage in Greenwich village ny. You’ll think the majority wants this. The Bible Belt would def differ though. Either survey might have reports stating their side. You can’t believe everything you read or hear no matter how compelling. All day long you go through life with your eyes not switching. Why miracously do you think they would now??

OK, so I watched the video posted by 3D and did a quick test with my cell phone video. Stand back 10 feet and quickly point at phone with right finger, then left finger. 3 times each, 2 videos. Looking at the video, 6 times pointing with the right index finger the right eye is directly behind it. 6 times with the left index finger the left eye is directly behind it. Go figure.

That being said, when it comes to archery the arrow is telling me that I'm definately LED when shooting a bow. Just for s and giggles I'm going to try the smudge on the glasses trick to see if my right eye wants to take over, at least when shooting right handed.

Thanks for the help fellas. Jim

Ditto Bowguy. I shoot right handed, left eye dominant but I shot left handed for years before I got target panick release. Switching back to right hand and target panic was gone but I’m still left eye dominant.. I don’t buy eye dominance can be changed. Ii believe we hard wired and it doesn’t change. I have asked different eye doctors and not one of them believed one could change eye dominance. Just my opinion after 77 years on this earth.

There's a reason why many really good target archers draw the bow to the center of their nose or chin.

The eye dominance shifting referred to in the linked article is not done on demand and is only temporary.

Well, I am definitely right eye dominant. That is pretty certain. Jawge

Watch Jeff Kavanaugh shoot on utube.Left eye dominant, and shoots right handed. Quiet the shot.That is the way i shoot also. I do all right. Both eyes open. I am left handed, and shot my brothers recurves from early on.They are all right handed.Back then it was hard to find a left hand bow, so i learned to shoot right handed.There is a lot of interesting information up above that i know very little about, but i will say this for sure,with practice you can shoot right or left handed bows no matter which eye is dominant. and become a very good shot.

Bowguy,

You can disagree all you want, but what do you have to back it up? I only have multiple scientific studies.

Twostrings, no it cannot be "forced", it is automatic. It all depends on angle, distance and target size. Never said otherwise.

If you are right eyed and shooting left handed each eye will see it own arrow. The arrow to the right and slightly up will be what the left eye sees. The human eye has a fixed focal length. You could probably do a bit of secondary aiming to get some sighting confidence. If you keep shooting left handed it will become grooved in and automatic. I shoot right handed one day and left handed the next. My go to bows are both duo shooters.

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